South Africa to enforce vaccine mandate for employees

JOHANNESBURG Reuters -- Africa's biggest telecoms service provider MTN Group said on Monday it would be enforcing mandatory COVID 19 vaccinations for its employees from January, the latest company in South Africa to issue a vaccine mandate.

Many South African companies have opted for mandatory vaccination to ensure a safe workplace environment, but that has also opened them up to potential legal challenges.

The move follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's announcement last month that the government was considering making COVID 19 shots compulsory for citizens to access certain places and activities.

Business lobby groups have supported the move, though one of them, Business Unity South Africa, said without specifying that it was expecting legal challenges and was seeking a legal opinion to help companies enforce the vaccine mandates.

South Africa's biggest trade union COSATU said last month that it now supports mandatory vaccination as a means of curbing the pandemic.

South Africa is experiencing a surge in coronaviruses, due to the new variant Omicron first detected in the country.

This has resulted in widespread need for vaccination in the country and the continent where the pace of inoculation has been one of the slowest in the world.

MTN Group's vaccine policy is intended to meet MTN's legal obligations in regard to providing a safe workplace, MTN said in a statement.

It said that staff who don't have a valid reason for not getting vaccinated will be laid off because of the vaccine mandate and the right of employees to apply to be exempted from the policy.